Buccaneers
Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield is entering the final year of his three-year contract. When asked about Mayfield, HC Todd Bowles said the quarterback has been “all about business” and doesn’t seem affected by his situation.
“Baker’s business, he’s all about business. The contract stuff takes care of itself,” Bowles said via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “That’s the business side of it that you don’t see that everybody has to deal with, and I’m sure he’ll take care of it. But it doesn’t affect his play. I know we’re going to get the best Baker out of Baker. He can separate the two. A lot of guys can that have been in the league awhile. He’s been around the block. He understands how to separate the two, and when he’s out on the field he’s all-ball. In meetings he’s all-ball, and everything else and the contact part will take care of itself.”
Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht has “no concerns” about Mayfield’s contract negotiations after speaking to him directly and will “continue to have discussions.”
“I have no concerns about that,” Licht said. “I’ve talked to him about that. He’s in a very good place right now. He just wants to win. He’s a pro’s pro. We have all the respect in the world. I do, personally. I know everybody here does. He’s going to ball. He’s going to ball no matter. We’ll continue to have discussions and try to get to a closure. But one thing I know, personally, I can lay down at night and know he’s going to play his ass off this year.”
The Buccaneers got off to a 6-2 start before losing seven of their last nine games of the season. Bowles wants Mayfield to limit turnovers, understand when to check down, and when to limit the hits he takes.
“The thing that will get us to the Super Bowl with him — obviously everybody has got to stay healthy — but the main thing is not turning the ball over and sometimes checking it down and understanding when he gets out of the pocket — he makes some great scrambles — but understanding how to get down and putting himself out of harm’s way,” Bowles said. “No, he’s not going to miss any games, but he can take a little bit better care of himself in certain situations. I understand when he’s a yard and a half or 2 from a first down, but not when it’s 10 yards or 8 yards from the first down when he can get up and live another day. Unless it’s fourth and 10 in Houston and the game is on the line, and I understand why he’s doing those types of things. But if we can take care of that, we’ll be fine.”
Falcons
The Falcons lost a couple of key defensive players this offseason in LB Kaden Elliss and DT David Onyemata. Atlanta DC Jeff Ulbrich said they will miss both players and take a “committee” approach to replace them.
“Both were tremendous players and even better people. (They’re) going to be hard to replace on the field, off the field and everywhere in between,” Ulbrich said, via Josh Kendall of The Athletic. “We miss them, love them, respect everything they did here. They won’t be replaced by necessarily one person. It’s going to be a little bit by committee, but I do believe we’ve got the guys in the building to get it done.”
Saints
Saints HC Kellen Moore said the team hasn’t discussed a new contract with TE Taysom Hill. He’s also put his house in Louisiana on the market, so the writing seems to be on the wall.
“We haven’t necessarily had any conversations up to this point,” Moore said, via Saints Wire. “But you never know.”
Moore’s attention seems to have turned to finding a way to replace all the different things Hill did, as he essentially bought the Saints multiple roster spots with his unique talents.
“He does everything,” Moore said. “Fullback, tight end, (he has) played a lot of different roles, and guys are going to have opportunities to jump to the next step.”
“You’ve got to kind of look at the roster, and we’ve got a team together and kind of create the formula that’s going to work for the 2026 Saints,” he added. “It’s always going to be a little bit different every single year.”
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